Chance Meeting Beseeched
I don't own Bleach. Bleach was created by Tite Kubo.
...100 years pass....
Drudging through the baron wastelands, the monster kept moving. It was always moving. It didn't know what else to do. It couldn't think. It couldn't feel. It could only act on natural and irrational impulses...
..."Good Tak. It would seem you have been improving on your technique lately. Step lightly. Move swiftly. Good!" With a flash of the old man's blade, the strange barrage of images ceased... Dropping to its knees, the monster clutched it's skull. Though not fully capable of thought, all the monster could do was kneel as it tried feverishly to make what little sense it could of these recurring visions. Suddenly, the foreign feelings of concern, pain, and sorrow, faded away as quickly as they came. Mental solitude ruled it's inner workings once more. It's arms slumped back to the ground, raised back onto its hind quarters, and began moving forward once more...
(Huge Explosion) Clouds of dust fumed all around her. The violent winds due to her cero blast caused her long green hair to whip at the air behind her. She stared blankly into the crater she had just created in the vast desert sands. Displeased with the size of this one, she prepared for another shot.
A low rumbling could not only be heard, but also felt in the distance. The monster stopped and listened intensely, trying to determine where that sound had emanated from...
(Several more explosions) "Better." She thought to herself, but still not entirely satisfied with the results. Taking a deep breath, she focused all of her energy into the pit of her stomach. Mind clear, body calm, desert still, she snapped open her mouth and ejected a powerful cero. With her incredible speed, she passed by her own cero blast and positioned herself directly in front of it. As it screamed toward her for the impact it so strongly desired, she place her hand steadily out in front of herself. As if frozen in time, the cero stopped and floated idly in front of her serene arm. Opening her mouth once again, she deeply inhaled filling her lungs with air, along with her own cero blast. She stood focused, the burning hot cero moving deep in her abdomen. Her eyes and mouth both snapped open simultaneously and dispelled another cero blast. With twice the intensity as the previous blasts, the explosion lit the dimming crimson dawn sky into an almost blinding white, causing an even larger crater to spew forth what seemed like endless amounts of dust.
A brilliant white glow lay in the distance. The monster stared for a moment, intrigued by the sudden array of white light changing the quickly darkening sky. It moved. Trudging toward the light ,the monster stared, fixed on the spot where the glow was now quickly dimming. It began to run...."(children laughing) C'mon Tak! Come catch me!" A vision of a small girl with black hair running from him, not screaming in fear, but laughing. "So you think you can out run me eh!? Guess again short stack!" The girl was overhead now, she smiled with wide eyes and a sapphire background behind her. Held out by a pair of sun tanned arms, the girl smiled widely, "You think mom has made dinner yet?" The bronzed arms place the girl gently onto the green ground "Dunno. Let's race back and check ok? You get a ten second head start Jur".....The memory ended abruptly. The monster was running, but with the newly added frustration and confusion from these images, began sprinting.
She was standing calmly staring into the remaining sliver of sunlight at the edge of the horizon, preparing to practice her last cero blasts of the day, she took a deep breath. Then with a start, she snapped her head around. Sensing a presence fast approaching, she squinted her eyes to maximize her range of vision. She saw a small cloud of dust in the distance.
It sprinted as fast as it's legs would carry him. It didn't run so much for the blast it saw earlier, but ran more for the sunset. For the first time ever, it did not want to be in the dark, especially after another one of those images had struck.
She saw it now. A large hollow was running. "It seems to be coming this way." She thought to herself. She squinted her eyes, then noticed that the hollow was not being chased. "Why is it running?" she breathed.
At full speed now, the monster sprinted in a grip of what it began to feel, as terror. "Why?", it asked itself. Startled by the fact it so suddenly began creating a vocabulary, it put its gargantuan arms on the ground and continued its run on all fours.
" That is strange. Why would a hollow be charging in my direction?" she asked herself, cautiously placing her hand on the hilt of her sword. Her stern yet inquisitive gaze intensified.
"WHY! Where am I? Who am I?" though in the midst of a panic, the hollow noticed that straight ahead of it in the distance, stood someone or something.
She began to draw her sword. Surely the rampaging hollow was within yelling distance. "Halt!" she yelled, drawing her sword halfway out of its sheath.
"A woman!? With a skull on her head?" Though the hollow knew very well it was an arrancar in the distance, the subconscious of this host was aware of not only aware of objects now, but also the details that accompanied them.
"It is about 100 yards away and closing in quickly," she thought to herself. She shifted her weight to her back leg, preparing herself in a defensive stance. Seventy yards, sixty, fifty, now forty yards. She gripped her sword even tighter. "Halt I said!" Her stern gaze turned piercing.
"Help!" The hollow cried, but did not slow from its powerful sprint. "Help me!" Even with the hollows newly discovered intelligence, it did not consider the fact that it was far too large and powerful to stop in the distance that was required NOT to run over the lone arrancar.
Thirty, twenty, ten yards now. The monster did not slow in time, it planted it's arms and feet in the ground to stop, but began sliding at the same speed at which was previously at. She unsheathed her sword and sliced in an upward arc, sliding underneath and behind the hollow in one flawless move. A loud ring filled the air as one of the hollows horns was severed. Losing its balance, it tripped, stumbled, and then fell with a loud crash, spewing forth more clouds of dust.
...Rain pelted him as he struck the bloodstained trunk of the tree he frequently came to train at. "Tak!" He dropped his guard, he could feel the rush of blood seeping out of his torn knuckles. A woman approached. "Tak! What do you think you're doing out at this hour and in this weather?!", his mother asked in a half angry half concerned tone of voice. "Mother I must train my hardest. Push myself further. Constantly intensify my training. You and Jurell are my responsibility." He turned and looked into his mother's eyes, frustrated hot tears dripping from his own. "How can I protect my family?" He asked through gritted teeth, clenching his ravaged fist until the dripping blood seemed to match the falling rain around him. "If I am so weak!" He exclaimed, spun around and planted his fist into the tree. Splintering up some of the under layers of the trunk, he vowed, "I will become stronger for my sensei, for you, and for Jur"... "Jurell" the monster breathed.
The arrancar was approaching the monster, sword drawn and ready to attack. She had no true desire to kill this hollow. Though it was on a much lower scale of power than her, it was one of her own kind. She would not hesitate to destroy it however if it chose to attack her.
They were coming at it so quick. The monster could not fight them all off. The memories of its past life were rushing at him from all sides. A barrage of images, names, feelings, smells, tastes, and sounds consumed him. "Jurell" it breathed again. "Jurell!" It repeated, clenching the sand beneath its enormous fist, it slammed the ground, causing nearby sands to shift slightly under its immense strength.
Confused, the arrancar paused mid step in her short walk toward the strange hollow.
"Mother...Sensei...Jurell...My life!...That creature!! That!... Monster!!" The memories of his last moments swimming through his head, kicking up more and more sediment the faster they swam. He knew who he was. He didn't know where his family was. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know who this strange woman with green hair and a sword was. He didn't know why his arms were giant and white, or why it felt as if he were wearing a helmet that consumed his entire head with what seemed like horns (or at least one now), protruding off the front of it. Now consumed by rage, confusion, sadness, and frustration, he forced his giant hands upon his own skull. He began pulling with all his might.
Shocked, the arrancar woman lowered her sword. "Stop! What do you think you're doing!?" She yelled as the hollow began wrenching on its own skull.
Searing pain was shooting through his entire body. He didn't care. With his newly discovered rage, he became inconsolable, primal, he couldn't have sense made to him even if someone literally drilled it into his skull. He pulled, screaming. He wrenched and twisted, the searing white hot pain flowing freely through its gargantuan body. There came a loud cracking sound, he let out a massive roar as the pain almost blinded him. Still, he pulled, twisted, wrenched, and even smashed his own head into the ground. He needed this thing off of him. He needed a clear view of himself. He needed it. With one final massive pull, the hollow tore free its own mask.
Still paralyzed by shock, the female arrancar only watched as the hollow, through sheer willpower, tore off its own mask.
Pain. Searing hot crippling pain coursed through him. It was so intense he couldn't think, couldn't hear, and couldn't see. He stumbled forward two steps. His body looked as if it were steaming. White smoke began fuming forth from his enormous body. His arms shortened. His legs were no longer haunches, but were becoming more human like, standing upright. His body became more proportionate. More white smoke filled the air. Everything was numb to him. There was no more pain, no senses, and no thought. Everything turned black.
She leaped back to stay out of the white clouds that had erupted from the crazed hollow. "A lower class hollow like him couldn't possibly have survived." She watched, her eyes full of shock, yet her sword was still at the ready. It wasn't everyday she witnessed a hollow commit suicide.
The white smoke was clearing now. She focused her eyes trying to pierce the haze for a clearer view. Slowly, a silhouette appeared close to the ground. Shocked and curious, she stared through the evaporating mist. As the silhouette became more identifiable, she noticed two legs, muscular and tan. Moments after the legs were visible, she could then see an outstretched arm, very muscular and the knuckles were slightly darker than the rest of the skin. The hands looked human now and strong, very strong. Her eyes widened and a bit of color rushed to her cheeks when she noticed the torso was rippled with rock hard abs and decorated with a broad chest and a wide pair of shoulders. Her cheeks reddened when she noticed that this body was completely naked. Eyes locked on what obviously now was a male body, she noticed the now visible head. He was handsome. He had a strong looking jaw line, medium length brown hair that flowed raggedly in the wind. She took note of the blue line that stretched from his right cheek, up across his right eye, and into his hairline. Unconscious, the man looked peaceful. Then she noticed the left shoulder was consumed with white. Remnants of his hollow form were scarred onto his naked body. The left shoulder looked like armor, a white shell with short spikes growing out of it. Her cheeks still a bit flushed, she drug her eyes downwards again and noticed that there was a hole about three inches in diameter, directly out from the solar plexus, she could see the sand that lay beneath him through the hole.
He stirred slightly. Groggily opening his eyes, he noticed this woman standing above him, pointing a sword at him. "Green…H-hair?" he managed to wheeze. Not only did this woman have green hair with a skull on her head, she also had huge green eyes that looked filled with confusion and concern. As her eyebrows furrowed, the pink line stretching across her face beneath her eyes grew more noticeable. She was beautiful, strange looking, but absolutely beautiful.
"He's just staring." She thought to herself. She noticed that when he finally managed to open his eyes, she could see pools of the most brilliant shade of blue lying in his crystal eyes. They were dazzling. It was as if they were made of sapphires being forged in blue flames. They possessed both sincerity and a strong will. She admired them for only a moment however, for as soon as his eyes were fully open, they slammed shut and his body went limp. He was out again. She stared at his unconscious body, contemplating the situation. "He just transformed from a low class hollow to an arrancar." She pressed her lips together. Deciding this man wouldn't pose a threat (at least for a few days in his vulnerable state), she slid her sword back into its bright green sheath. Placing her thumb and forefinger into her mouth, she blew a loud long whistle. After the ringing echoes of her call faded away into the distance of the vast dark desert, the ground rumbled, then her pet burst forth from the sand below. "Hello Bawabawa!" she yelled with joy. The giant caterpillar like hollow sat tall, smiling through its giant skull like mask. She turned away from Bawabawa and turned her attention back to the mysterious man. She folded her arms in both concern and deep thought. After some careful consideration, she decided it would be best to take this strange man back with her to Las Noches for medical treatment. She had many questions to ask him, but she would never get them answered if she left him out here. "He wouldn't make it through the night in his condition anyways," She thought. "Bawabawa!" she yelled. Bawabawa lowered its massive skull to the ground. The arrancar woman lifted the man over her shoulder and leapt onto her giant "pet's" head. "Bawabawa! Let's get back to Las Noches! I'm sure that Pesche and Dondochakka are worried by now!"
With that, the giant hollow reared into the night sky and lurched forward, speeding through the onyx desert sands towards Las Noches.
He slowly opened his eyes. The woman was above him, staring at him. He felt the ground he was lying on was hard yet smooth, but it was also moving. As he and the woman's hair whipped in the wind, the woman stared at him with concerned eyes now. She reached out with her soft hand and gently touched his cheek, tracing the blue line on his cheek with her forefinger. His eyes rolled back into his head and once again he was consumed by the sinking darkness of unconsciousness.